Are you ready for the “Ethel Cain Summer”?

At the end of the second Coachella weekend, when Charli XCX displayed messages of support for various artists with albums coming out in the upcoming summer months, one name stood out more than the others: Ethel Cain, appearing in the phrase “Ethel Cain Summer”. Now almost a cult figure in an increasingly saturated landscape of female pop stars, she’s also a model for Miu Miu and a modern web persona, thanks to the Florida singer’s habit of actively engaging with her fans on YouTube and social media, as well as on Tumblr – all channels through which followers can catch a glimpse of her private life and personal opinions. With an album scheduled for release in August, Cain seems not only poised to captivate fans around the world but also to capture the vibe of this summer’s style, making us wonder if the mood of the upcoming season will truly be the one evoked by the singer. More than her music, of course, what we’re referring to is Cain’s persona itself, which – beyond photoshoots and fashion week appearances – has developed an incredibly sincere and unfiltered online presence with her fans, voicing many of her views on Tumblr (views that, we might add, are easy to agree with) and posting numerous photos of herself in grainy quality, perhaps taken from her webcam, sometimes posing with a gun, other times wandering through desolate autumn landscapes. But what exactly is Ethel Cain’s style?

Grouped under the broad label of “Southern Gothic”, originally rooted in literature, the singer’s style is a mix of certain 19th-century atmospheres reminiscent of *Little House on the Prairie* and a kind of informal contemporary grunge, where vintage nightgowns, long dresses with Victorian or Southern church cuts alternate with denim shorts, flannels, tube tops, trucker hats, and heavy leather boots. The kind of wardrobe you might find in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the singer even recreated Jessica Biel’s look from the film for a Halloween party in 2023), in Bones and All, White Lightnin’ or Badlands, but also in Ti West’s films with Mia Goth, X and Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects. It’s an aesthetic that thrives on contrasts, much like Cain’s music, which oscillates between the ethereal and the violently dark: to quote Cain herself – though she was referring to the choice of her name – her wardrobe could be described as «womanly, matronly, old American» on one hand, and inspired by the imagery of rural American communities on the other. Camouflage and hunting aesthetics are also recurring elements: seen throughout her Facebook page gallery, but especially in a series of posts from June 2022 showing two photos of a man presumed to be Cain’s father wearing camouflage outfits, including one where he holds a dead deer by the antlers like a trophy; in many subsequent posts, both amateur and professional photoshoots, guns and especially ballistic gloves appear, worn by the singer even during various live performances.

It’s an imagery that is actually well codified even in its polarities from the very beginning, exemplified by the two characters in the iconic painting American Gothic by Grant Wood, which depicts a man in rough workwear (overalls, white shirt, and jacket) and a woman in a traditional dress with a stiff Puritan-like collar and a cameo necklace. The two opposing extremes of Ethel Cain’s style are already present here, perhaps only missing the religious iconography that accompanies her. There’s the same tension between the grounded, prosaic nature of "American teenager" clothing (also the title of one of Cain’s major hits, which she later partly disowned, much like Kurt Cobain did with Smells Like Teen Spirit) and the more evocative garments of a more spiritual world, suggestive of our own. It’s a form of dressing that is intentional yet very sincere, whose authenticity comes through because, ultimately, it is Cain’s character and the atmospheres she inhabits that elevate an everyday look whose individual components are actually far from flamboyant or original, and gain interest precisely by seeming so detached from trends – so pragmatic and anti-commercial, yet firmly situated in a specific atmosphere and context. An aesthetic that’s very American, overlaid with religious, macabre, and pro-gun elements, where crosses and firearms become part of a visual language that, in line with the recent fusion of Y2K and worn-out workwear, does indeed seem like the style that will dominate the coming summer months.

Indeed, ringer tees, faded denim, graphic hoodies, and sleeveless shirts, visor caps, clothes that evoke the 20th-century American myth, and camouflage are already everywhere on the streets and in social media feeds around the world. The mix of biker boots and airy white sundresses is already reappearing as a juxtaposition of light, soft, often very pale items with others that are dark and heavy, punk-inspired, and made of black leather. Among men, there’s a growing search for worn-out t-shirts whose collars are fraying and beginning to reveal bits of skin – preferably heavily faded, paired with chains and that whole look that evokes sincerity and a lived-in life within a cultural macro-framework where even the very concepts of authenticity, social class, and individual personality seem to have lost definition. The dark yet evocative world of Ethel Cain is certainly not the originator of this aesthetic – which, as mentioned, has deep roots – but it is its most modern and relevant synthesis, now intersecting with themes of queerness and the reclamation of a visual language deeply embedded in ideologies where a rigid gender binary is foundational – ideologies that Cain obviously questions, reframing the focus. Much like Kamala Harris’s viral camouflage hat during her presidential campaign, which combined more liberal ideals with a visual identity that an outside observer might have superficially assigned to the opposite political fringe. From this very contradiction arises the irony noticed by meme pages, which rightly pointed out how this wardrobe is shared by both rural conservatives and urban progressive youth, who often wear it in a purely performative yet ironic way.

On the runways, these signals have appeared in varying degrees. Brands like Diesel, Dsquared2, or Balenciaga, in Demna’s recent collections, have heavily drawn on a grunge and hyper-realistic aesthetic that comes much more naturally to purely American brands like ERL or R13. In truth, fashion hasn’t so much copied Cain’s look as it has made her a character – a protagonist in campaigns for Miu Miu and Enfants Riches Déprimés, the latter perhaps more aligned with the dark tones surrounding Cain’s persona. In past and current seasons, various brands have reinterpreted both the grungy, nonchalant look of rural America and that mix of practical and flirtatious dressing seen in David Koma’s debut collection for Blumarine, as well as in the work of Collina Strada and Stella McCartney. Perhaps more successful, in this era of conservatism, are prairie dresses and négligé-style garments seen at Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Gabriela Hearst, Anna Sui, Coach, and most notably, Erdem. This doesn’t mean that the real world – the one where young people shape fashion by wearing clothes that aren’t luxury – isn’t following the trend. Cain herself, during the FW24 Miu Miu show in Paris, declared, «I’m obsessed with not being on the Internet right now», and indeed the Ethel Cain Summer seems tailor-made for those who want to disconnect and finally touch some grass. Or, at most, to evoke simpler times through what they wear.